Novartis Takes Another Step in Management Shuffle

By Scott Hensley

James Shannon

The management shake-up at Novartis continues. The latest casualty is James Shannon, head of global drug development, the WSJ’s Jeanne Whalen reports.

Novartis has been reorganizing its pharmaceutical division after regulatory setbacks–including the withdrawal of constipation drug Zelnorm and a delay in FDA approval for diabetes pill Galvus–have hit the unit’s earnings.

A Novartis spokeswoman confirmed the departure of Shannon, who led the company’s clinical testing of drugs and its relationships with regulators, including the FDA. She didn’t know what his plans are. He wasn’t immediately available for comment.

The new guys on the drug development firing line are Trevor Mundel and Andrin Oswald, who will run the development arm in two newly created roles. Mundel formerly worked as the company’s global head of exploratory clinical development. Oswald was was president of Novartis’s pharmaceutical business in South Korea.

Shannon is following Alex Gorsky, head of Novartis’s North American drug business, out the door. Gorsky returned to Johnson & Johnson last month, where he’d worked before Novartis, to head up its Ethicon devices unit.

Correction: Earlier, based on what a Novartis spokeswoman told us, we ran a correction to this post saying that Trevor Mundel only would be succeeding James Shannon. But later, Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella told us our original post was right: Trevor Mundel and Andrin Oswald will be running the development arm jointly.